


Redemption

by kajivar



Category: Charmed
Genre: Character Death Fix, F/M, Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-08-23
Updated: 2005-08-23
Packaged: 2017-11-23 07:47:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/619737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kajivar/pseuds/kajivar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the Charmed Ones are killed by demons, Cole is willing to do whatever it takes to bring them back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Canon up to (but not including) "Oh My Goddess"

Cole gently traced the engraved words upon the wall with trembling fingers. Phoebe Halliwell. 1975 -- 2003.

He'd felt her die. For months he'd shut her out, closing himself to her joys, her fears, her loves, her pain. It was the only way he'd been able to move on -- by completely severing his connections to her. It was the only way to let her move on. But that one moment crashed through his defenses, and he'd heard her scream, felt her agony...and then nothing. He didn't know how or why, only that she was gone. He didn't believe it -- refused to believe it -- but the truth was here before him. Phoebe was dead.

The smoldering ruin of Halliwell Manor had given him no answer. An explosion, the police claimed and the news dutifully reported. A gas leak in the basement, they said. Cole knew better, however. It was demonic in origin. But the traces of energy he sensed there had been a whirlwind of confusion, too much to sort out, and he'd been unable to determine who or what was responsible. 

His gaze drifted to the other names carved on the mausoleum wall. Piper and Wyatt, interred together. Paige. And Prue, of course, though her death came two years earlier than her sisters'. The Charmed Ones were no more, finally slain by the evil forces they had fought for the past five years. It had happened on Halloween. Phoebe had probably been busily getting ready to go to a party, wearing a costume to entice her latest lover. Or had the sisters expected the attack? Did they have a chance to fight back?

He returned his eyes to Phoebe's vault, resting his forehead against the plaque that bore her name, pressing his fingers so hard against the letters the sharp metal cut into his skin. "I'm sorry, Phoebe," he whispered, his voice thick with emotion. "I should've been there for you. You needed me gone, but I should've kept watch. I'll find a way to fix this. Somehow. I promise."

He heard the music-like sound of someone orbing behind him. He knew without even turning it was the Charmed Ones' Whitelighter, his former brother-in-law. "Cole?" Leo said hesitantly.

Cole glanced over his shoulder. "Leo."

"How...?" Leo asked, his expression betraying his shock at seeing Cole alive.

"Does it really matter?" Cole said with a nonchalant shrug. "I let you believe I was dead. It seemed the thing to do at the time."

"What are you doing here?" he demanded suspiciously.

Cole inclined his head toward Phoebe's tomb. "Paying my respects," he said. "My wi—Phoebe's dead. Did you think I wouldn't care?"

"I don't know what to think," Leo said warily. "You apparently took elaborate measures to fake your death and disappear. Now you're back? You must have a reason."

A small smile played across Cole's lips. He looked away from Leo and put his hand over Phoebe's name once more. Where his fingers had bled, the metal letters had melted from the acid in his blood. "I'm bringing her back, Leo. I'm going to make this so this didn't happen. She'll be alive again."

Leo shook his head. "You can't do that, Cole. You can't change their deaths. It was their fate --"

"Fate?" Cole snarled, spinning around to face Leo. "I refuse to accept fate. I'm going to bring her back or die trying."

"You've tried to change the past already," Leo warned. "It has a way of working out with the same results. Look what happened with Prue...."

"Don't you care enough to try, Whitelighter?" Cole snapped. "You lost your wife and son. If I can do this Piper and Wyatt will be alive again. Don't you care about that?"

"Of course I do!" Leo protested, pain crossing his face. "But there was nothing I could do...."

"Nothing you could do," Cole agreed. "But not nothing I can do."

"The Elders will try to stop you," Leo said. "I'll have to stop you."

Cole laughed harshly. "What are you going to do? Heal me to death? Get out of here, Whitelighter. Go before I make you go. Go warn your precious Elders. They. Can't. Stop me."

The fire in Cole's eyes and voice was enough to convince Leo. He gave Piper's vault a quick, longing look, then orbed from the mausoleum. Cole watched him go, then closed his eyes and reached for the power within him.

"He's right. You will not be allowed to do this."

Cole sighed irritably and opened his eyes to find two men, one tall and dark, the other older and grey-haired, in black suits before him -- two of the Avatars, the ones who had enhanced his powers even more and given him the power to affect reality. "We allowed you to twist time once," the older of the two said. "We understood your need to make it appear you were dead and allowed you to do so because it would bring you to us. But you are to only use what gifts we have given you to benefit the Avatars, not for your own personal gain."

"I don't have time to argue this," Cole told them. "I'm going to do this. And you can't stop me, either."

"Yes, we can," the second Avatar stated. "It's become clear we never should have asked you to join us. You remain too attached to mortal cares. And yet you are too powerful to allow to exist if you are not one of us. Therefore we will --."

He never finished his sentence. Cole waved his hand at the Avatars, sending them crashing against the opposite wall of the mausoleum. Bricks and mortar crumbled around them. With another flick of his fingers, he caused the fallen bricks to rise and move, building walls around the Avatars and sealing them within before they could react to the attack.

Cole calmly regarded his handiwork. He knew the prison wouldn't hold them for long, but long enough. "No one is stopping me," he whispered fiercely.


	2. Chapter 2

Phoebe stared at her laptop screen, frowning as she searched for just the right phrase. She smiled as it came to her, her fingers moving quickly across the keyboard as the words poured from her mind to the computer. Pausing for a moment, she adjusted the knit shawl around her shoulders. The door and windows of the sun room were open, letting a slight autumn chill inside the house.

Cole watched her silently from the gardens outside, half-hidden in the late afternoon shadows. He'd been standing there for over half an hour now, just looking at her. Seeing her after all this time brought all the old pains back -- her loss, her mistrust, and in the end, her hatred. Even after all that, despite all this attempts to convince himself otherwise, he still loved her. He knew he should just turn away and go, leave her to her fate, not risk himself after all she put him through. But love had never guided his actions rationally. It had made him betray the Source and spare the Charmed Ones' lives. It drove him mad when Phoebe claimed she would always love him yet ordered him to stay away from her. And now it was compelling him to alter time to bring her back to life.

Phoebe sat up straight suddenly, gasping as her shoulders tensed. She closed her eyes, shaking in the grip of a premonition. When she opened them a moment later, her face was filled with fear. "No," she whispered.

Did she see what was to come this evening? Cole stepped into the sun room, hesitantly calling out her name, wanting desperately to take her in his arms and soothe her fears away. "Phoebe...."

She leapt to her feet, her laptop crashing to the ground. "It can't be...you...you're...." She took a few unsteady steps backwards.

"Phoebe, please, don't be afraid," Cole said, moving slowly toward her. "I'm not here to hurt you. I have to warn you--."

"Piper! Paige!" Phoebe screamed, mindless of his words. She turned to run into the living room.

Cole grabbed her arm and held her back. "Dammit, Phoebe, I'm not going to hurt you! There's going to be an attack soon. You have to listen to me!"

Her eyes were wild as she struggled against him, desperate to break free. He had taught her most of her moves himself, though, and knew how to counter each of them. Intent on keeping her restrained, he didn't realize Piper had entered the sun room until the force of her powers hit him. What would blow a normal demon into bits exploded the air around him, and the resulting blast knocked him away from Phoebe and halfway across the room. Freed from his grasp, Phoebe ran to her sisters' protection.

"Haven't we already killed you?" Paige asked. "Twice?"

Cole climbed slowly to his feet, holding his hands out before him in as unthreatening a stance as he could manage. "I'm not here to hurt you, I swear it," he said. 

"Right," Piper said, unconvinced. She looked heavenward and called out, "Leo!"

Her husband orbed in to the room second later. "What's wrong, honey?" he began. He saw Cole and broke off in shock.

"Take Phoebe to the attic and stay with her there," Piper ordered. She lowered her voice and added, "Keep Wyatt with you, too." Leo nodded, taking the unresisting Phoebe's hand and disappearing with her in a swirl of blue-white orbs.

"There's not much time," Cole said urgently. "A demon's going to attack -- ."

"A demon's right here," Paige pointed out. "And why aren't you dead? I thought for sure we'd gotten rid of you once and for all last time. What are you, part cockroach or something? What rhymes with Raid...?"

"I don't have time to explain," Cole reiterated. "Something's going to happen here today. You're all going to die."

Behind Paige, a chair rose up in the air. Cole caught the movement and started to call out a warning, but the chair slammed into Paige's back, knocking her to the ground. Piper reacted quickly, flashing her hands at Cole and throwing him back to the floor. She grabbed Paige's arm and helped her sister to her feet, then both women dashed from the room.

Cole rose and tried to follow, but stopped as he sensed a familiar presence. "Troxa?"

Laughter came from his left. He spun, trying to track the voice that taunted him. "Still chasing the Charmed Ones, Belthazor? Don't worry about it. It's All Hallow's Eve, and some of us have returned to finish what we started. The Grimlocks showed us the way."

That must have been why he had not been able to sense who has been responsible for destroying the Charmed Ones -- it had been more than one demon, dead demons at that, crossing back into the mortal realm on the night when the veil between worlds became thin. "Who else?" he demanded.

"Andras. Barbas. Others," Troxa said. "The Charmed Ones have a whole legion of demons they've vanquished who have waited for this opportunity. Whose side are you on these days, Belthazor? Come to help us or hinder us?"

"I'll stop you," Cole vowed.

A scream rang out from somewhere in the house above them, followed by a loud crash, and Troxa laughed again. "Too late, Belthazor. And you can die with your witches this time."

Invisible hands seized his throat from behind, trying to strangle him. Cole broke free, summoning his powers to plunge the room's temperature even lower. The cold rendered Troxa's power of invisibility useless, and the outline of his form became visible.

"Well, that's new," Troxa said. "Barbas said you'd changed. I guess he was right. You may stop me, but you can't stop us all."

"I will," Cole said. He conjured a ball of flame and threw it at Troxa, incinerating the demon. "Phoebe," he murmured, willing himself to her side.

He found her in the attic, lying crumbled across the wreckage of a trunk. The entire attic was in disarray, as if a storm had blown through. Cole knelt beside Phoebe, gingerly lifting her into his arms. Blood trickled from her nose and mouth, and her face was deathly pale. "No, no," he whispered, then realized she was still breathing -- barely. "Leo!" he shouted, trying to summon the Whitelighter to heal her.

"You son of a bitch," Piper said in a low voice from the doorway. "You finally did it. You finally killed her."

"She's not dead, Piper," Cole said. "Get Leo -- he can help her." Her response was to try to blow him up again. As he tried to ward her attacks off, he protested, "Piper, listen to me! Call for Leo!" She continued to ignore him, blasting him with the full force of her power, catching Phoebe's body with it and flinging her around as well. She seemed to have no care for her sister's welfare -- she just wanted vengeance.

Cole realized the cause of her mindless wrath when he spotted the dark-haired man leaning against the doorframe and smirking at him. Andras, the Spirit of Rage. He was playing off of Piper's anger, making it grow hotter and hotter so that she would listen to no reason. Andras waved to Cole and stepped behind Piper, disappearing as he moved inside her.

Paige called out for help, somewhere below them. Andras -- as Piper -- grinned at Cole. "This one needs to get pissed off more often," he said as objects around him began to fly into pieces. He raised Piper's hands and struck at Cole with the magnified fury of her power, knocking him through the attic wall. Cole hit the ground three stories below hard and lay stunned for a moment.

He heard Paige cry out again, weaker this time. The windows of the house shattered, sending glass raining down.

The manor exploded.

* * *

Cole howled in frustration and slammed his fist against the mausoleum wall, cracking the stone and metal. He'd tried half a dozen times to save Phoebe, and each attempt ended in failure. Phoebe died. Her sisters died. He tried approaching Piper first, then Paige, even Leo. He tried to remain unseen, helping them from the shadows. Nothing worked. Once the Charmed Ones realized his presence, they would not listen to him. Barbas would work their fears; Andras would incite their rage. They fought against him as hard as they did against the other demons, and there were no words he could use to convince them he was on their side.

The demonic attacks were random and chaotic, unplanned, and different each time, so he could not learn from each attempt. He'd counter one attack, only to see a more deadly one occur. He couldn't predict when what demon was going to make its move, though Leo seemed to be a first target. Incapacitate the healer and leave the Charmed Ones even more vulnerable. In two of his attempts Leo had actually died -- which meant the past could be changed, since the Whitelighter had survived the original assault. But each time he went into the past he saw Phoebe and her sisters die.

His powers were ebbing. Each time he shifted reality, it drained him more and more, and he knew he could only make one, maybe two, more such attempts before exhausting his strength. Then the Avatars would find him and destroy him. They were already free of the prison he had trapped them in and were undoubtedly searching from him. He didn't have much time left.

He couldn't go too far before the attack and try to earn their trust gradually. The Avatars -- or maybe even the Elders -- would sense him attempting to change the past and try to stop him. The Charmed Ones believed him evil and a threat. Any proof he tried to bring from the future would be considered a trick.

An answer came to him, a way to bring them help they would trust and convince the Charmed Ones of his sincerity. Perhaps unexpected as well, which would give him some time from the Avatar's.

"This has to work," he said to himself, and stretched out his arms and sent himself back into the past.


	3. Chapter 3

"Okay, what Cole potion?" Prue asked Piper suspiciously.

Piper sighed. "He told her he only killed because some demon cast a spell on him. How naïve is that?" She rolled her eyes.

Prue frowned. "I thought she was over him."

"Apparently not," Piper said.

Their innocent interrupted the discussion of their sister's love life. "What the hell are you talking about?" he demanded. "First you tell me my life's in danger, then you abduct me from my work, now you're talking about demons and witches. Who the hell are you people?"

Prue turned to face him. "Look, I know that this all sounds incredible, but it doesn't make it any less true," she explained, struggling to find the right words to reach the doctor. "Alright, you're a healer, you do good. Now either you have saved too many lives or you're about to save a life that they don't want you to save."

"They?" the doctor said incredulously.

"Yeah, demons. Uh, more specifically, Shax. He was the Source's assassin," Prue said, nodding.

The doctor took a step back. "Hold it, I get it. This is a practical joke, right? Do you have a hidden camera here? My second wife put you up to this? Ah, it's just like her." He looked around the room and laughed nervously. 

Prue looked exasperated. "Okay, Dr. Griffiths, listen to me, this is anything but...." She broke off, looking around the room.

"What?" Piper asked, looking about as well.

"I don't know. I just felt a chill," Prue said. She glanced up the stairs. "Phoebe? Phoebe, are you there?"

There was no answer coming, of course. Watching invisibly, cloaked by his powers, Cole knew exactly where Phoebe was -- in the Underworld, clinging to his past self and crying as the extent of her sacrifice was hitting her. She was giving up her freedom, surrendering her soul to evil to restore Piper to life. This day had already played out once for them and ended with Piper's death. Then time had been reset by the Source, and this was how things unfolded.

Prue called out to Phoebe again as a strong gust of wind blew the front door open. The wind knocked Prue and Piper to the floor. Thunder shook the walls, and the demon Shax appeared before them.

Dr. Griffiths stared in disbelief at the mammoth grey demon. "Dear god!"

Prue climbed to her feet. "No!" she cried, pushing the doctor out of the way as Shax prepared to throw an energy ball. The blast struck Prue, sending her crashing through a wall. Piper met the same fate before she could use her powers to defend herself. Both sisters lay in the wreckage, still and bleeding.

Shax turned his attention to Dr. Griffiths. "What are you?" the doctor stammered in terror.

"The end," Shax said grimly. He threw another energy ball, and the doctor's lifeless body smashed through a window. Shax smiled, surveying the destruction, then spun himself into a tornado and flew out the front door, slamming it shut behind him. The glass windows shattered, then everything fell silent.

Cole knew what would happen next. In a few minutes, in the Underworld, the Source's guards came to kill Phoebe. He fought them, of course, and so did Phoebe and Leo. The Source expected Phoebe to be completely helpless, trapped without her powers in the Underworld. It underestimated her, forgetting she had augmented her magics with martial arts and was not so helpless after all. The Source, while fully aware of Cole's love for Phoebe, also did not realize that Phoebe had used a potion to cure him of the spell Raynor had cast, one which made him more susceptible to the pull of his demonic side, and did not expect Cole to resist the Source's guards so strongly. These things gave him enough time to grab Phoebe and shimmer away as Leo orbed out as well. 

They all came to the manor and found Piper and Prue. Leo healed Piper, but for Prue, it was too late. She had lost too much blood. Time was reset, but a sister still died. All he could do was hold Phoebe as she screamed and sobbed, while Leo did the same for his wife.

Cole stepped over to Prue, crouching down beside her body. Blood pooled beneath her head, spreading rapidly across the floor. He waited, listening to the beat of her heart as it slowed, then stopped. Placing his hand on her head, he called upon his powers. He did not have the ability to heal others, but the avatars had given him some mastery over time. Carefully he manipulated it backwards around just Prue so that her wounds were undone.

Her eyes flew open and took in Cole kneeling over her. Instinctively she used her power of telekinesis to fling him away from her, then scrambled to her knees. "Piper!" she cried as she saw her sister lying beside her. When her shakes failed to rouse Piper, she called out in panic, "Leo! Leo!"

"He'll come in time to heal her," Cole said, standing, leaning against the wall for support. His powers made him almost completely invulnerable, but it didn't mean it didn't hurt to be continually thrown into walls by the Halliwell sisters.

Prue spotted the doctor's body lying half through the window and moved quickly to his side to check him. She spun around and faced Cole angrily. "He's dead...did you do this? You're working with Shax." She returned to her sister's body, carefully brushing some of the debris away from Piper. "Leo!" she shouted again. "Dammit, where are you?" She looked up the stairs. "Phoebe! Phoebe, get down here!"

"Neither of them can hear you, Prue," Cole told her. "I've pulled you outside of time. And even if you weren't -- they're in the Underworld."

She ignored him, running to get the phone and dialing 911. "There's no dial tone!" she said in dismay, slamming the phone back down. In desperation to help Piper, she turned back to Cole. "If you're not the one who did this, then get her to a hospital. You can shimmer her there. Do it or I will vanquish your ass. You know I can do it. We still have the potion."

"There's no need," Cole said, moving closer to Prue. "Look, I told you, Leo will get here in time to heal her. I know you're not going to believe this, but you have to listen to me. This day happened twice. The first time, when you called for Phoebe, she was here. She came down the stairs with the vanquish spell and drove Shax away, but didn't kill him. She called for Leo, and he healed you. Then you and Piper chased after Shax to try to destroy him, but you were seen by a TV camera crew. You were exposed as witches. Phoebe had come to me in the Underworld by then and didn't realize what was going on. I'm not sure exactly what happened myself, but someone shot Piper and killed her. Leo was looking for Phoebe and couldn't come to her in time."

Prue looked at him in disbelief. "Why the hell should I believe a word you're saying?"

"Just hear me out," Cole said. "The Source offered Phoebe a bargain -- if she stayed in the Underworld, he would reset time so that Piper wouldn't die. Of course she agreed, but on the condition that you and Piper be warned about what had happened. But the Source broke its word and tried to have Phoebe killed once time was reset and left you and Piper to Shax. It delayed us long enough that...." Cole paused, looking away from Prue. "Leo healed Piper. But for you, it was already too late."

"You're lying," Prue said angrily. "This is some kind of trick. I'm not falling for it. I'm not Phoebe -- I'm not going to fall for your lies."

Cole shook his head. "It's true, Prue. I've come from the future. You've been dead for over two years."

"Nice try, but come up with something more original next time," Prue seethed, her fingers twitching with the urge to TK Cole across the room again.

"There's a truth spell in the Book of Shadows," Cole said. "I know you've used it before; Phoebe told me. If you don't believe me, cast it now."

"I don't have time for you," Prue said. "I need to help Piper." She dug her car keys out of her pocket and returned to Piper's side, bending down to pick her up.

Cole grabbed her arm to stop her. "Cast the damn spell!" he snapped.

Prue glared at him, but did so. "For those who want the truth revealed, opened hearts and secrets unsealed, from now until it's now again, after which the memory ends, those who now are in this house will hear the truth from other's mouths."

Silence fell between them for several long moments. "Did you just tell me the truth?" Prue finally asked.

Cole released her arm and nodded. "Every word."

Prue backed away from him, sitting down heavily on the couch. "Oh, god," she said. "I died? I'm dead?" She raised her gaze to Cole. "What...what happened?" she asked haltingly. "Without the Power of Three, Piper and Phoebe would've been sitting ducks for any demon...."

"The Source was counting on that," Cole agreed. "But -- you had a third sister, Prue. Paige. The daughter of your mother and her Whitelighter. Patty gave Paige up at birth to protect her from the Elders."

"Another sister?" Prue repeated, dazed.

Cole nodded. "With her they recreated the Power of Three just in time to destroy Shax and avenge you. And she helped take some of the sting of your loss out of your sister's hearts."

Prue covered her face with her hands for a moment, then looked back at Cole. "Why now? Why are you here now?" Cole hesitated, and she demanded, "Tell me."

"Your sisters are dead two years from now," Cole said softly. "I'm trying to bring them back."

"Trying to bring Phoebe back," Prue corrected, not fooled. "Why come back this far? Why start with me?"

"Because your sisters think I'm dead. And evil. They won't believe me if I show up and try to save them." Cole winced at the words. "Dammit, can't you turn that truth spell off?"

Prue smirked, enjoying his discomfort. "No. It last for 24 hours."

Cole sighed. "We don't have 24 hours. We have to get moving now, before the Avatars track me down."

"I want to know more," Prue insisted. "Dead? Evil? Explain that. I doubt my sisters don't have good reason to think that."

"All right," Cole growled. "To make it short -- a few months after you died, Belthazor was vanquished. Phoebe made a potion that stripped me of my powers. I was human. Phoebe and I were going to get married. But the Source made a direct attack on your sisters. They vanquished him, but in the process, the Source jumped into me and possessed me. I couldn't fight it. I tried so hard, but...." He paused, trying to compose himself as the torrent of memories came rushing back, the helplessness he felt as the Source took him over, controlling his body and actions. He could influence it -- sometimes -- but his soul was trapped in the prison of evil, and that small part of himself that remained his own could only watch as the Source sought to destroy the Charmed Ones.

"I married Phoebe and tried to turn her evil," he continued, "but when it came down to it she sided with Piper and Paige and vanquished me. Because I have a soul, I wasn't truly destroyed. I was stranded in the demonic wastelands, but I learned to absorb power there, and I escaped and came back to Phoebe. She was frightened of me, and your sisters did nothing to relieve those fears. Her rejection of me made me...unbalanced. I tried to trick them into vanquishing me to end my misery, but I had this slight problem with being invulnerable. I couldn't die, I couldn't have Phoebe, and I knew I couldn't just leave without them hunting me down. So I set them up to make it seem like they vanquished me. And disappeared. Until I learned they were dead."

Prue sat silently, absorbing this all. "You were the Source of All Evil?"

Cole frowned and nodded. "And Phoebe was my queen. For a short while. You know as well as I she has a predisposition toward evil. But she managed to fight it."

"And you didn't," Prue accused. "Seems to be a pattern for you."

"Couldn't," Cole corrected angrily. "You don't understand the power of the Source. I tried as hard as I could to defeat it, but I couldn't. I managed to stop it from kill Paige -- twice -- but I couldn't control it."

"All right, if you're trying to help, then help Piper like you helped me," Prue demanded.

"That would change the future," Cole said. "I don't know what kind of effect that would have. It could make things worse."

"Then how are you going to explain there being no body?" Prue asked.

Cole waved his hand toward where Piper lay, and a doppelganger of Prue appeared beside her, lying just as she had before he had revived her. "They'll think that's you," he explained. "Just watch."

A few seconds later, his past self shimmered into the manor, Phoebe in his arms. Leo orbed in beside them. "Piper! Prue!" Phoebe cried, running to her fallen sisters. "Leo, help them!"

Leo knelt between Piper and the faux Prue, closing his eyes in concentration and putting a hand over each of them. Golden light swept from his fingers and over their bodies. His eyes opened and he looked in dismay at Prue, then he moved both hands over Piper. His wife's wounds healed, and Piper said up, groaning, "What happened?"

"Leo, heal Prue!" Phoebe said urgently. Leo looked at her, sadness in his eyes. Piper looked down at Prue's body, then back at her husband. "Leo...?" she said fearfully.

"I...it's too late," Leo said softly.

"No!" Piper cried. "Heal her, Leo!"

Phoebe stood trembling, shaking her head in denial. Cole's past self came up behind her and wrapped her in his arms. She turned her face against his chest, shaking with violent sobs. Leo embraced Piper, trying to get her to look away from her sister as Piper continued to shriek. "No! No!"

Prue watched this, dismayed. "That's not me, I'm right here," she whispered, trying to touch Piper's shoulder as she flailed her hands at Leo. When Piper failed to respond to her presence, Prue whirled around to face Cole. "Put me back! I'm not dead! Tell them!"

"I'm sorry, Prue," he said. "This is how it was. This is how it has to be."

"But if I'm alive the future's changed!" Prue insisted. "You get what you wanted. I'll know what's gonna happen in two years, and I can stop it. Just tell me what I need to know and put me back."

"We don't know what effect you not dying would have on the future," Cole explained. Maybe your sisters would never meet Paige. She'd never come into her powers. She won't be where she's supposed to be one day to save an innocent -- or your sisters."

"But I know about her now, I can find her," Prue argued.

"It still changes everything," Cole said. "This is how the past was supposed to be. If we change it -- we could make things worse. Right now I know they survive until the fall of 2003. Are you willing to take the chance that they will do that again? Are you willing to risk undoing the birth of your nephew?"

"Nephew? I'm an aunt?" Prue looked back to her sisters, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I-I know you're telling the truth," she said. "But how can I do this to them? How can I put them through this?"

Cole followed her gaze, looking longingly at Phoebe. This was how he saw her when he called her face to mind. Softer. Gentler. Her hair was lighter then, and longer. Her heart was more open. Prue's death -- and then his transformation -- had changed her, made her harder and more self-absorbed. She had lost two of the people she loved most and it made her wall up her heart and hide her wounds and show a colder, unfeeling exterior to most of the world.

"Maybe you're right," he said quietly. "If you don't die, knowing what I've told you, you can stop me from becoming the Source. Phoebe and I will be together. Happy. Maybe it would be better if we changed things now."

Prue looked at Cole, seeing the pain on his face as he looked at Phoebe. "Cole," she said softly.

"I can stop her from feeling this pain," he went on, not hearing her. "If I'm going to change the past, why not just change it here? It's the Hollow -- the Source uses the Hollow to attack your sisters and steal their powers. The Seer -- she's the one who convinced me to use the Hollow myself to steal the Source's powers so he could be vanquished. But the power stayed with me. She knew that would happen, but I didn't. If you stop me from doing that...I don't know how we can defeat the Source, but there must be a way. You can find it."

Prue laid her hand gently on his arm. He looked at her hand, confused by the compassionate gesture. "Let's go," she said. He started to protest, but she shook her head. "You know this is the way it has to be. You just told me that. We can't risk too much of the future being changed or saving me becomes pointless. If you want to save Phoebe, we have to do it this way."

Cole looked to Phoebe again, then with great effort turned away from her and his past self. "You're right. Let's go," he said flatly. He put his hand over Prue's and closed his eyes, summoning his power.

"Uh, Cole?" Prue said.

"I need to concentrate," he said. "Shifting time takes a lot of power...."

"Cole!" Prue repeated urgently. He opened his eyes to see the Avatars had appeared before them. 

Prue picked up on his alarm and waved her hand at them, knocking them into the foyer. They rose quickly, and one conjured a yellow sphere of energy and threw it at Cole. He pushed Prue behind him, taking the brunt of the blast. A golden aura surrounded him, and he could feel his strength being leeched away. Struggling against the pain, he called forth his power. He reached behind him and grabbed Prue's hand tightly. "Hold on!" he warned, then shifted time and space.


	4. Chapter 4

"Where are we?" Prue asked, looking around the desolate red landscape. Nothing but sand and rock stretched as far as she could see. 

"The wastelands," Cole answered. "This is where demons go when they die. The Avatars can't track me here, I think. I need to rest before we can do this."

"Nice place," Prue said. "I can see why you didn't want to stick around."

Cole looked over the ledge of the rock upon which they stood to the sands below. "Be careful -- there are creatures burrowing in the sand that will try to grab you. I killed a lot of them, but they breed fast," he said. 

"The demonic afterlife is ‘Tremors'?" Prue couldn't suppress a laugh. "I always wondered if Kevin Bacon was a demon." She looked at Cole and asked, "So, who were those guys?"

"They call themselves Avatars," Cole explained. "They were drawn to the power I had and offered me a place among them and an increase in my powers. I took them up on it to try to forget about Phoebe. But they have this problem with me using my power for personal gain and they're trying to stop me. They'll kill me if they catch me."

Prue was silent for a moment. "You're risking a lot for this. But Phoebe doesn't love you?"

Cole sighed. "No, she does. She's said as much. Paige made me feel it. But she hates me, too. Your sisters think I became the Source willingly. They won't believe otherwise."

Prue frowned. "That doesn't sound right. You became the Source saving them, right?"

He nodded. "They've never let me explain. They don't want to hear it."

"Why didn't you ask for the truth spell, then?" Prue asked. "Like you asked me?"

"I shouldn't have had to," Cole said shortly. "You and your sisters were always so eager to believe the worst of me. There didn't seem to be much I could do to change that."

"And you think doing this will get Phoebe back?" Prue said.

Cole shook his head wearily. "No."

Prue looked at Cole in surprise. "No? That isn't why you're doing this?"

"I'm doing this because I still love her, yes" he said. "But I don't care to delude myself into thinking I can sweep in to the rescue and everything will be forgotten. Given that I can't save them myself, I think it's a safe assumption it won't change anything."

"And if this works?" Prue asked. "What then?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I'll go away again. I'll have to keep hiding from the Avatars. They don't seem the forgive and forget types. They'll want to make an example of me. Living on the run isn't something I haven't done before at least."

Prue idly studied the dust beneath her feet, not saying anything for several minutes. "Tell me this," she finally said. "Why Phoebe? Why did you pick her to go after when you were trying to kill us?"

"She was the youngest," Cole said, a little surprised by her question. "The most vulnerable, the most trusting. Piper was already involved with Leo. You were entirely too suspicious in nature. I thought I had the best chance of getting close through Phoebe. But that hardly matters now. If I hadn't focused on her, maybe I wouldn't have fallen in love with her. She changed my life." He paused , then asked, "Why do you want to know?"

"Because I was jealous of her." Prue clamped her hand over her mouth in horror as the words flew out. 

Cole couldn't help but grin at her. "The truth spell affects you, too. Forget that part?"

Prue glared at him. "Shut up."

"Well, if you want to know the truth, you're a lot like the women I was involved with before your sister. Demonesses, mostly. Beautiful, proud, strong." Cole winced. "Okay, maybe we should just not talk."

"Why don't you just tell me what happened while I was, uh, dead," Prue suggested hastily, trying to change the subject.

Cole sat down on the rock and made himself comfortable. "All right," he said. He started with her funeral, how Paige had been drawn there by Piper's casting of the spell to find a lost witch. How Phoebe's premonition of Shax attacking her led to the realization she was a Halliwell and a Charmed One, and how the Power of Three was restored in time to vanquish Shax. How Piper was transformed into a Fury by her grief. How the Source started making direct attacks on the sisters.

He faltered when he reached the point where the Source had possessed him. "So you got the Source's power and decided to be evil again?" Prue said.

He sighed in exasperation. "I already told you I tried to fight it. Can you imagine what that was like? I thought we'd destroyed the Source -- then I realized it was inside me. I fought it as hard as I could -- and at least my love for Phoebe kept it from destroying your sisters outright. When it took me, it absorbed my needs and desires as its own. Of course it rejected trying to be good, but it needed Phoebe because I needed Phoebe. I even tried to give up the power, but Phoebe stopped me."

"Wait -- what?" Prue said.

"The Seer convinced her to embrace her inner darkness for the sake of our child, and she stopped the transfer of power," Cole explained. "I told you she was my queen. She made that choice willingly."

Prue groaned and rolled her eyes. "See what happens when I die? No one is around to smack some sense into Phoebe."

"Piper and Paige finally did," Cole said. "When it came down to a choice of my life or theirs, she sided with them to vanquish me. I don't blame her for that -- it was the right thing to do. The Source would've destroyed Piper and Paige, and, if it couldn't have Phoebe, maybe killed her, too."

Prue gestured about them. "And then you came here?"

He nodded. "Because I have a soul. Pure demons are destroyed here. My human soul clung to life. I learned by accident I could absorb the power of vanquished demons before they were destroyed utterly by the creatures that live here. When I had enough power, I escaped the wastelands. The first thing I did was save Phoebe from a witch-killer, but...."

"But?" Prue prompted.

"She ran from me," Cole said resignedly. "She wanted me gone. She said she hated me. But then she was turned into a mermaid...."

"Mermaid?" Prue repeated, blinking.

"Piper -- Fury. Phoebe -- mermaid. Paige -- vampire and nymph," Cole said with a small chuckle.

Prue smirked. "Dog, man, triplets, I think I'm still ahead. But go on."

"I don't know exactly how or why she became a mermaid, but apparently she wanted to remain one to ease the pain in her heart," Cole continued. "Paige came up with the idea of making me make Phoebe face her feelings instead. She cast a spell to make me feel what Phoebe felt for me. I was leaving San Francisco for her sake, because that's what she wanted, but when I felt that love -- I couldn't give up."

"She still loved you," Prue murmured.

"But she thought I was evil," Cole said. "She never gave me a chance to explain what had happened with the Source. I don't understand why she and your sisters automatically condemned me and believed I had turned evil willingly after all we'd been through together. How could they believe I would want to hurt them? I think I went a little insane. Knowing she loved me but dealing with her cruel words and pushing me away...something in me snapped. I did things I regret. I should've left them, gone away, been done with it all. Moved on. But as much as she pushed me away, she wouldn't let me go, either. Anything that went wrong, she came to me to accuse and blame. It seemed like she wanted me around to be the villain, and even that painful contact with her was better than nothing. I finally realized the only thing I could do was to fake my death -- so that she wouldn't try to find me -- and leave, but once I was no longer there to protect her...." He broke off, looking away from Prue.

Prue quietly crouched down beside Cole and touched her hand to his his. "I'm sorry," she said softly.

"I don't want your pity, Prue," he said bitterly. "If you'd been alive when this all happened, you'd probably be gleefully telling Phoebe you told her so."

She winced. "All right, maybe. But I know the truth now. And, okay, so maybe I haven't had the Source of All Evil inside me, but I do know what it's like to be controlled by evil," she said. "When Dantalian made me evil, Phoebe and Piper didn't for one second believe it happened willingly. I don't understand why they wouldn't believe you."

"You're their sister. I'm a demon," Cole said. "I'm not worth believing."

"After all the help you've given us, you certainly are," Prue insisted. "If I'd been alive I...." She paused, furiously blinking back the tears that were starting to well in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Prue," Cole quietly echoed her words of moments before. "You weren't supposed to die. If I could've done anything to prevent it...."

She irritably brushed her hand across her eyes and rose to her feet, moving away from Cole. "Well, I guess life wasn't fair to either of us. We both lost the people we cared about, and we...." She broke off as the stone beneath her feet shuddered. She looked at Cole in alarm and started to take a step back toward him. The rock crumbled and fell away, and she dropped from his sight.

"Prue!" Cole called. He jumped off the ledge to the ground twenty feet below. Prue lay on the ground in a pile of rubble, slowly sitting up. "Owww...." she said, rubbing her shoulder. "That hurt."

"You're all right," Cole said in relief, offering her his hand. "Come on, we have to get off the ground...."

A tentacle erupted from the ground, snaking around Prue's waist. Another shot up and wrapped around her throat. She struggled frantically in their grip as Cole grabbed hold her, holding her tightly, playing a game of tug-of-war as the tentacles tried to drag Prue into the sand below.

Prue clung to Cole, wrapping her arms around him. She couldn't TK the tentacles away while they were roped around her. "Get them off me!" she gasped.

Cole grabbed the tentacle around her neck, trying to pull it away. The creature kept most of itself pulled into the ground, so he couldn't throw a fireball at it without risking harming Prue.

"Behind...." Prue choked out. She lifted her hand, deflecting another tentacle that had risen behind his back.

Cole dug his fingers into the tentacle at Prue's throat as she struggled to breathe. He slowly summoned his power, and the tentacle smoldered beneath his hand. He heard a muffled squeal of pain and the tentacle withdrew. The one at her waist tightened its hold. He held on to Prue, pulling against the creature's grip as he tried to burn the second tentacle.

The creature finally released Prue, sending them both tumbling back. Cole pulled Prue against him and shimmered back on top of the rock. As they reappeared in the safety of the plateau, Prue, off-balance, fell backwards, pulling Cole down with her.

Neither knew who moved first, but a heartbeat later they were kissing one another. There was a desperation to it, a frantic need for comfort and to feel alive. They clung to each other, seeking even a moment's respite from the pain and emptiness inside them.

* * *

Prue came awake with a gasp. A dream, it had all been a dream, she would go downstairs and find Piper and Phoebe there and everything would be fine. But the room and bed in which she lay was not her own, and beside her.... She looked at the still-sleeping Cole and groaned inwardly. What the hell had she been thinking? She wasn't thinking, that was the problem. She had just wanted to feel alive and deny the awful thought of her death.

She eased carefully from the bed, finding her clothes and getting dressed. At some point Cole had brought them here -- wherever here was. Definitely San Francisco; she could tell that much by looking out the window. The place seemed posh but stale, like no one had been here for quite some time. She drew her finger through the dust on a bureau, then glanced at her watch. If it had kept going normally despite the travel through time, it was just over 24 hours since Shax's attack at the manor. The truth spell would have worn off -- taking Cole's memories of the past day with it. Trouble was, she didn't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Prue?" She looked back to the bed and saw that Cole had awakened. He had a strange, confused look on his face.

"You don't remember?" she said hurriedly. "Side effect of the truth spell."

He looked at her a long moment and nodded. "I told you to cast the spell...."

"Yeah, and well, you told me the truth. These two guys showed up and attacked you -- you called them Avatars. You brought us here to get away from them because you said you needed to rest to regain your strength. You passed out in here. I was just coming in to see if you were okay."

He studied her for another long moment. "This is -- was -- my penthouse," he told her.

"Penthouse?" she repeated. "How did you pull that off?"

"One of the perks of being the Source," he said. "I managed to hold on to it after I crawled out of the wastelands. It's remained unoccupied since I died. It can't be sold until I'm declared legally dead."

"Okay, so when are we?" Prue demanded. "I want to save my sisters. Let's do this."

Cole moved to throw the sheet back from the bed, then paused, looking meaningfully at Prue. She turned her back to him, flushing slightly. He dressed behind her, then said, "This is the day your sisters are attacked. It's October 31, 2003. It happens tonight."

"That's cutting it a little close, isn't it?" Prue said, turning back around, hoping the blush had faded from her cheeks.

"If we try to change this too early, we give the Avatars more of a chance to locate us," Cole explained. "The Elders, too."

"The Elders?" Prue said. "Why would they stop you? Don't they want the Power of Three alive?"

"You'd think that," Cole said. "But Leo made a lot of noise about fate, destiny, the way things were meant to be." He hesitated a moment, then added, "I have to warn you, Prue. I've exhausted a lot of my power. If you don't succeed...I don't know if I can do this again."

"Don't you mean we?" she said.

"I can't help -- I only made things worse," he said reluctantly. "Barbas and Andras used me against your sisters. They don't trust me. You have to do this, Prue -- you have to save them."

"What are you going to do then?"

"I'll watch -- if there is anything I can do without being seen, I'll do it."

"Then what? If this works, what happens to us?"

"You'll remain here," Cole said. "You're legally dead, but I'm sure your sisters can come up with something. I'll...I'll just go away again. Go some place where Phoebe and the Avatars won't have to worry about me." He looked away from Prue for a moment, then continued in a tight voice, "You have to do this, Prue. You have to save them. After everything that's happened -- everything -- I still love Phoebe. I don't care if she loves me or not, I just want her to be alive and safe."

"She will be," Prue said firmly. "They all will be. Those demons aren't gong to know what hit them. Tell me what I need to know, and then let's do this."


	5. Chapter 5

Cole shimmered into the manor attic, holding Prue's hand. She looked about herself and said, "It hasn't changed much, has it?"

"The windows have been replaced two or three times," Cole said idly. "Your sisters remain a favorite customer of the stained glass manufacturers of San Francisco."

Prue nodded absently, then took a deep breath to steady herself. "All right. I know who is going to be here. I know the spells and potions we need. Where are my sisters?"

"Piper will be on her way up here in a few minutes," he told her. "Paige is in her room. Leo is with Wyatt in the nursery. Phoebe...is in the sun room working on her advice column."

Prue managed a smile. "That's the one thing I can't believe, truth spell or no. My sister, the advice columnist."

"She has a way of helping people deal with their problems when she wants to, " Cole said. He paused, then said, "I'd better go. I'll stay close and try to do what I can to help, but if your sisters see me...I'll do more harm than good."

She nodded, then put her hand on his arm and looked up at him. "She'll be all right. I promise." He gave her a weak smile and shimmered out of the attic.

Hearing footsteps coming up the stairs, Prue moved behind the attic door and waited. Piper stepped into the room and frowned to herself as she looked around, as if she were trying to remember where something was. She pulled open a bureau drawer and began to rummage through it. Prue watched her quietly for a moment, seeing how much her sister had grown and changed in the past two years. She'd been forced to take on the role of the big sister, the head of the family, and that was no easy task.

"Piper," she finally called out softly.

Her sister gasped and spun around. "Pr-prue?" She flew across the room and into Prue's arms. "Is it really you? The Elders finally let you come? I kept asking Grams and Leo and they said the Elders said we weren't ready or you weren't ready and they wouldn't even let you come to Wyatt's wiccaning and oh god I've missed you so much!"

Prue hugged Piper tightly, laughing despite the grim nature of her appearance here at Piper's rushed and excited babbling. "I'll explain everything, I promise," she said. "But we need to talk."

Piper tensed for a minute and stepped back. "How do I know it's really you? How do I know this isn't some sort of trick?"

"Could a demon do this?" Prue stepped over to the Book of Shadows and laid her hand on the open pages. "It's me, Piper...it's really me."

The suspicion faded from Piper's face, replaced with joy. "You need to see Wyatt!" Piper said. "You're an aunt, Prue! Did they tell you that? Leo! Leo, bring Wyatt!"

Leo orbed into the attic at his wife's summoning, holding baby Wyatt in his arms. "Prue?" he said in amazement. "But...how...?"

Piper was practically bouncing with excitement. "The Elders finally let her come see us!"

"Not exactly," Prue said. "Piper...I'm alive."

"I don't understand," Piper said, bewildered. "What do you mean? How could you be...?"

"I came from the past...from before I-I died." Prue stumbled over the last word. "I'm here to warn you -- there's going to be a big demon attack soon."

Piper looked from her sister to her husband in confusion. "I should check with the Elders about this," Leo began.

"No!" Prue said sharply. "There's no time. Get Phoebe and Paige up here. We have to stay together if we're going to get through this."

Piper moved to the top of the stairs and called for her sisters, trusting Prue implicitly, just like Cole had known she would. A few moments later, Prue heard an unfamiliar voice complaining as someone came up the stairs. "This better be good, I was just about to take a nice relaxing bath." A red-haired woman stepped through the doorway and stopped, staring at Prue in shock.

Phoebe came up the stairs behind her. "What's up, Piper -- oh my god, Prue!" She pushed by the other woman and rushed to embrace her sister. 

Prue hugged Phoebe tightly, though her thoughts were divided between relief at seeing her baby sister again and concern about what Cole had told her about Phoebe's behavior. She looked over Phoebe's shoulder at Paige, who lingered uncertainly in the doorway. "You must be Paige," she said.

She nodded. "I knew the Elders would let you come see us someday," she said shyly. "I've always wanted to meet you."

"I wish the circumstances were better," Prue said grimly. "Guys, listen to me. Remember how the Grimlocks came back from the dead on Halloween? They're helping some demons we vanquished to it tonight. They're coming to the manor to kill you."

"Not...not Cole?" Phoebe said fearfully.

Prue glanced sharply at her. "Don't worry about him. Worry about Barbas, Andras, some Jeric guy...." She pulled a slip of paper from her pocket. "And someone else we've dealt with before. ‘Let this room fill with cold so that its secrets may be told,'" she read.

"What's that supposed to do?" Phoebe complained, rubbing her arms as the temperature of the room began to drop.

"The first demon to come should be -- Leo! Behind you!" Prue called out as the outline of Troxa's form became visible. He was edging towards Leo, something in his hand. Leo spun around, and Troxa lunged. Phoebe reacted quickly, levitating upward and kicking the demon across the room. Troxa crashed into the couch but sprang to his feet, throwing the object in his hand toward Leo. Prue used her telekinesis to knock it away as Piper flashed her hands toward the semi-visible foe. The demon howled and vanished in flames.

"What the heck was that?" Paige said.

"Troxa," Prue explained. "First strike because of his invisibility, but cold makes him visible. And don't touch that!"

Paige was already recoiling from Troxa's weapon. "Darklighter arrow?" she said, taking a step back.

Prue nodded. "Take the healer out first. Kill or incapacitate Leo and he can't help you if you're wounded. The others will be here soon. We need to make some potions." She looked at her paper again. "Do we have everything in the attic? Powdered quartz, rosemary, rain water...."

Piper was already gathering ingredients as Prue read her list. Prue hastily mixed some of them in a glass vial, then began to prepare a second. "Rosemary?" she requested again.

"The rosemary is in the kitchen," Piper said. "I don't think there's any up here."

"I'll get it," Paige volunteered, orbing out of the attic.

"Wait, don't!" Prue yelled, but Paige was already gone. They heard a crash and a cry of fear from the first floor.

"We have to go down there and help her!" Piper said. "Which demon is it?"

"I'm not sure," Prue said. "But we go down together. We stay together." She looked at Wyatt. "But what about him? We can't leave him up here alone."

"He can take care of himself," Piper said proudly. "He has a defensive shield that protects him when he senses danger."

"Okay, let's go then," Prue said, taking her sisters' hands.

"Just like old times," Phoebe said with a grin, then Leo, holding Wyatt in one arm, put his free arm around Piper's shoulders and orbed them all down to the kitchen.

Paige lay crumbled on the floor in the living room. Piper stepped toward her, and Prue moved with her, looking around warily. A wild burst of wind rushed through the room, and Shax appeared between them and Phoebe and Leo. Both Prue and Piper froze for a fraction of a second at the sight of the demon that had caused Prue's death, giving him the time he needed to attack. The wind he controlled threw Phoebe hard against a wall, and she slumped to the floor, blood pooling beneath her head.

"Wyatt, danger!" Leo said, quickly setting the baby down in his highchair. His son's shields went up as Leo tried to run to Phoebe's side to heal her. Shax anticipated his movements, throwing an energy ball at the Whitelighter and knocking him to the ground.

Prue grabbed Piper's hand and ducked behind the couch before Shax could turn to focus on them. She looked over to Paige and saw her youngest sister stir and moan. "We need to get to her and do the vanquish spell," Prue said.

Piper rose and tried to blow up Shax, but the demon moved too quickly. He threw an energy ball at her; she froze it inches from her head and ducked back down again. "He's too fast!" she gasped.

"We can't do this alone," Prue said grimly. She hesitated a moment, then called out, "Cole!"

Piper looked at her in shock. "Prue...?"

Cole shimmered into the living room. Shax spun around to face his new foe as Cole quickly conjured an energy ball and threw. Staggering back from the attack, Shax launched an energy ball of his own at Cole.

Prue grabbed Piper's hand and rose from behind the couch. "Come on!" They dashed to Paige's side, helping her sit. Paige blinked at Cole in confusion. "Oooh, things just got worse, didn't they?" she groaned.

"Worry later. Shax vanquish now," Prue said. The spell was still fresh in her mind, and she knew Piper would never forget it. Paige stumbled over the words for a moment, but it was the first spell she had ever cast and she would never forget it, either.

Together, the sisters recited the spell. "Evil wind that blows that which forms below. No longer may you dwell, death takes you with this spell." Shax howled in rage and pain, then vanished.

Piper crawled to her husband's side, shaking him while casting anxious glances at Cole. "Leo, wake up," she pleaded. He groaned and opened his eyes, then saw Phoebe lying bleeding nearby and immediately shook off his grogginess to heal her.

Paige regarded Cole nervously. "Uh, Prue, what's going on?"

Prue didn't answer her, her attention on Cole. "I took care of Jeric outside," he said. He took in the incredulous gazes of Piper and Paige. "I better go...."

"Wait," Prue said. "We need you."

"No...." Leo had finished healing Phoebe and she had risen to her feet. Holding on to the doorframe for support, she stared at Cole, her eyes wide with fear. "No," she repeated. "You can't be here, too! Stay away from me!" She turned and ran up the stairs. Cole winced and looked away.

"Phoebe, get back here!" Prue called after her. "We have to stay together!" She looked over to Paige. "Can you orb and get her -- quickly? We can't keep splitting up. Drag her kicking and screaming if you have to."

Paige nodded, but then Phoebe reappeared at the top of the stairs, a small bottle clutched in her hand. "Go away!" she shrieked, throwing the vial toward Cole. He ducked instinctively, even though he knew it wouldn't destroy him, but the action was not necessarily, as Prue TK'd the bottle away from him.

"Barbas has her," Prue muttered under her breath.

Cole shook his head. "That's her real fear," he said softly.

"But we know that Barbas is around here...somewhere," Prue argued.

"He's not the only one, witch," a voice snarled, and the demon Vinceres shimmered into the room. He backhanded Prue, knocking her to the floor with a laugh. "Not so high and mighty now without your empathic powers, are you?" Then he turned to Piper, grabbing her by the throat, his hand glowing red. 

Cole conjured an energy ball but could not throw it without risking Piper's life. "Prue! Get her away!"

"I can't!" Prue cried. "He's immune to our powers!" She looked up the stairs to Phoebe, who still stood on the landing. "Phoebe...."

Phoebe hesitated, looking fearfully at Cole. But she vaulted over the railing, kicking Vinceres so that he let go of Piper and staggered back. Piper clutched at her throat and sagged against the wall as her sister stood between her and the demon, her fists raised. "You just moved to the head of the line," Vinceres sneered, reaching for Phoebe.

"No!" Cole shouted. He threw the energy ball, sending Vinceres crashing into the grandfather clock. Vinceres leapt to his feet, looking quickly around for someone to put between him and Cole. He made a grab for Wyatt, but Wyatt's shield flashed and pushed Vinceres away. Cole threw another energy ball, and this time Vinceres erupted into flames and vanished.

The room fell silent for a long moment. Then Wyatt began to wail, and Paige hurried to her nephew to pick him up and comfort him. Leo tended to the burns on Piper's throat, healing her as Phoebe confronted her eldest sister. "Did you bring him here, Prue? What are you doing? Don't you what he's done? He's evil! He'll try to make me evil!"

"Shut up, Phoebe!" Prue snapped.

Cole avoided Phoebe's accusing gaze and spoke quietly to Prue. "I think it's just Andras and Barbas left," he said.

"Oh great. The easy ones," Prue muttered.

Paige looked down at the baby in her arms. Wyatt burbled at her happily. Prue glanced over to her youngest sister, suddenly getting a bad feeling. "You're evil," Paige whispered. "You're Cole and Phoebe's child. You have no soul. I have to destroy you..." She slipped her hand around Wyatt's throat and began to squeeze.

Cole was closest to her and reacted first. He snatched Wyatt from Paige's arms, pushing Paige back so that she sat down hard on the sofa. The power of fear broken, she looked from Piper and Leo to Wyatt in horror. "What was I -- I wouldn't hurt him!" she protested.

For a moment, Cole regarded the child in his arms, aware of what a strange picture it must paint -- the great demon Belthazor, the former Source of All Evil, cradling a cooing infant in his arms. Wyatt reached up, tugging at his hair, blissfully unconcerned with the demons roaming the manor -- or the demon that currently held him.

"His...shield," Piper said, stunned, her voice a little hoarse from Vinceres' touch. "It didn't go up...." She pulled herself together and snapped at Cole, "Give me my baby!"

He disentangled Wyatt's grasping fingers and handed the baby to Piper, almost reluctantly. "He should've been mine," he couldn't help but murmur as Wyatt waved at him from the safety of his mother's arms.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Piper said suspiciously, checking Wyatt over as if she expected some sort of demonic sigil to be now emblazoned on his diapers.

"My son...mine and Phoebe's," Cole said wistfully. "Whatever the Source or the Seer had planned for him, he was conceived in love. He was an innocent. And now he's gone. Funny how all of a sudden you became pregnant with the most powerful magical child the world has ever known immediately afterwards. That's what our son was supposed to be. I guess the universe has a way of balancing itself out."

"That baby was a black soulless thing," Phoebe hissed. "Wyatt is nothing like it." She was trembling with rage as she spoke, advancing towards Cole. "You put it in me to turn me evil, you bastard!"

"Uh...Cole?" Prue said under her breath.

"Yeah, I think she's not alone in there," Cole said. "You ready?"

Prue nodded as Phoebe lunged at Cole. He fended off her blows, trying not to hurt her as Prue pulled out the potion she'd mixed earlier. She hurled it at her sister.

Phoebe fell limp in Cole's arms as the magic of the potion forced Andras from her body. The Demon of Rage looked around himself in surprise, then started to shimmer out of the room. "Not so fast," Piper said, raising her hands and blowing Andras up.

Paige moved to take Phoebe from Cole's embrace. "No offense, dude," she said, "but she's going to freak if she wakes up like this."

Cole nodded. "You're right," he said wearily. "Barbas should be the only one left now. You've all been through this before. He's going to try to dig up your fears and...." His words trailed off.

"Cole?" Prue said, peering at him.

"I'm too late," he said softly. "I failed again. And I don't have the power to try another time. You killed her...but I'll make you pay." His face a mask of rage, he threw an energy ball at Piper. She shrieked and flung up her hands, freezing it before it could strike.

"Oh, clever," Prue said, "he's going after Cole instead of us. I call upon the Charmed Ones' grace, let us see the Fear Demon's face!" 

Hovering at Cole's shoulder as he whispered in his ear, Barbas became visible. "Oh, this can't be good," he sighed dramatically.

"Energy ball!" Paige called, summoning the one Piper had frozen. She redirected it with her power, sending it toward Barbas. The demon looked disappointed as he was engulfed with flames and disappeared.

Cole shook his head, trying to clear it. "I thought...I thought she was dead and...."

Prue moved before him and took his hands in hers. "No. We did it. You did it. She's safe. We changed it this time."

A voice floated down from the stairway landing. "Yes, you succeeded in changing the past, Cole, but you won't get to enjoy it." The Avatars had arrived.


	6. Chapter 6

The two Avatars stepped down the stairs. Prue lifted her hand, but Cole shook his head at her. "I'll deal with this," he said quietly. "I knew they'd catch up sooner or later."

Piper stepped closer to Prue, still holding Wyatt protectively. "Who are these guys? More demons?"

Behind them, Phoebe stirred. Paige helped her stand up. "What's going on?" Paige asked, her sister sharing her look of confusion.

Cole waited for the Avatars at the bottom of the stairs. "You are fortunate," the elder of the two said, "that we are neither petty enough nor willing to waste our power to undo what you have done."

"However," his partner continued, "you have defied us, and now you will pay the price."

Cole nodded. "I know." The first Avatar stretched out his hand, touching Cole's forehead. Cole fell to his knees with a strangled cry, his head slumping forward as an aura of white gold light surrounded him.

"What are you doing?" Prue said, stepping forward.

"Taking our power back," the darker Avatar stated simply. "And as penalty for abusing what we have given him, _all_ his power will be taken and added to our own. As well as his life. Do not interfere."

"No!" Prue cried. She tried to TK the Avatars away, but, prepared for her this time, they simply deflected her power back at her. She slammed against the wall. Quickly regaining her footing, she looked at her sisters. "Help me!"

Piper hesitated. "Prue, you don't know what he's done. He was the Source of All Evil...he tried to kill us."

"This is all some sort of trick!" Phoebe exclaimed.

"Fine," Prue said through gritted teeth. "I'll do it alone then. He saved my life, he brought me here to save yours, and I am not going to let him die."

Paige looked at the determination in her eldest sister's face and shrugged. "Cole!" she called. Cole disappeared in a cloud of orbs and reappeared beside Paige. The aura surrounding him faded and he collapsed unmoving at her feet. 

Phoebe gaped at her sister in shock. "What are you doing?"

"I still don't know what's going on," Paige said, "but if Prue says help him, I'm going with her."

The Avatars scowled at the sisters. "You were warned," the elder said. "Do not interfere or you will pay the price with him."

Prue kept herself between them and Cole. "Leo, get him out of here," she ordered her brother-in-law.

"I can't orb," he said in frustration. "They're stopping me somehow."

"You cannot stop us," the second Avatar stated. "Move aside and let us deal with him."

"You're going to have to go through me to get to him," Prue said defiantly.

Piper set Wyatt down, telling him to put up his shields. "And me," she said, moving beside Prue.

"Me too," Paige chimed in, joining her sisters.

"The Power of Three is no match for us," the first Avatar said. "If you insist on defiance, you will be destroyed as well."

"Try the Power of Four," Prue said.

The Avatar conjured a yellow ball of energy and threw it toward Prue. She held up her hand, using her power to keep it from moving any further forward. Piper grabbed her free hand, and Paige put her own hand on Prue's upraised arm. She felt their strength flow into her and started to force the energy ball back toward the Avatars. Calmly, the Avatars focused their power, and the ball began to move back toward the sisters.

"Phoebe!" Prue said through gritted teeth. "Get over here! I don't give a damn what you think of Cole, but these guys are going to kill us if you don't help!"

Phoebe moved behind her sister and touched her hand on Prue's shoulder. "Just let them take him," she pleaded.

"Shut. Up." Prue snapped. The energy ball stopped its forward progression, and she gasped out the beginning of a spell. "The Power of Four will set us free."

Piper picked up on her words. "These sisters' power you cannot face."

Phoebe hesitated, then whispered, "Halliwell witches stand strong beside us."

Paige finished the spell with, "Banish these...two guys...from time and space."

"No!" the Avatars exclaimed, but their powers could not match the combined strength of all four Charmed Ones. Bright light surrounded them, and they vanished.

Prue let her arm drop, still shaking from exertion. She took two seconds to catch her breath, then jumped to Cole's side, kneeling beside him and shaking him. "Cole?" He didn't respond, and she couldn't tell if he was alive or dead. "Leo?" she said, looking up at the Whitelighter.

"You know I can't heal a demon," Leo said reluctantly.

"You have before," Paige reminded him. "I helped you."

"Please," Prue said, fighting back tears. "I know I wasn't here for everything you went through with him, but believe me, he brought me here to save you. You all died here tonight, and he went back in time to save your lives."

Leo and Paige knelt beside Cole's body, joining hands and holding them over his chest. "What are you doing?" Phoebe wailed. "Don't you understand? He's evil!"

"Oh, get over yourself!" Prue snapped. She rose to face her hysterical sister. "I don't know what's happened to you while I've been gone, but instead of growing up, you've gotten more childish. He loves you, Phoebe, don't you understand that?"

"But he wants me to be evil...," Phoebe protested. "You don't know what he's done. He made me Queen of the Underworld...he tried to use the Woogie to make me evil again...he tried to kill Paige and Leo!"

"I do know," Prue said. "He told me everything while under the truth spell, so I know he wasn't lying to me."

"I-I thought you hated him," Phoebe said. "Once a demon, always a demon."

"Yeah, well, I've gotten to know him better recently," Prue said.

"He's just trying to trick us -- and get me back," Phoebe said tearfully.

"No, he didn't," Prue corrected her. "He did it because he loves you and he didn't expect it to change things. Actually, I think he expected to die. But I'm not going to let that happen."

Phoebe grabbed her sister's arm. "Prue, please, I can't go through this again. I can't deal with him again! I can't!"

"You're going to have to, Pheebs," Prue said. "You helped create this situation. And it's long past time you dealt with it. You never take responsibility for anything, Phoebe. And Piper, it looks like you let her get away with it. Paige -- I'm willing to believe you just went along with the two of them because you were new to the family, but you two" -- she stabbed her finger and Piper and Phoebe -- "know better."

"Prue, what...." Piper said, confused and hurt.

Paige's words interrupted the conversation before it could go further. "Uh...guys...this isn't working. We can't heal him."

"It feels like...he's fighting it," Leo said. "He won't let us heal him."

"Dammit," Prue muttered. "He knew this would happen. But I'm not going to let him do it." She closed her eyes, using her powers to create an astral duplicate of herself.

"What are you doing?" Piper asked.

"Knocking some sense into him," astral Prue said. "I just hope this works." She knelt beside Cole again, then merged her astral self into his unconscious body.

She'd done this one before -- merged with Vinceres to make him feel the brunt of the empathic powers she'd had at the time. This time, however, she wanted to help, not hurt. All around her was darkness, but she could sense a faint flicker of Cole's presence somewhere around her. _Cole?_

_Prue? What are you doing?_

_Leo and Paige are trying to heal you. You're fighting it._

_Let me go, Prue. I knew this was the way it would end. I knew it and I did it anyway._

_Don't give up. You did it. You saved Phoebe. You saved all of us._

_She still hates me. You heard her._

_Then fight for her._

_I'm tired of fighting, Prue. Let me go. Let it end._

_I'm not going to let you die. You brought me back to my sisters, and if you think I'm just going to let you die, you've got another thing coming. Besides, if you really love her, you won't do this._

_If I love Phoebe so much, then why did I...why did we...?_

_You...you...you remember that?!_ Prue wondered if her physical body was blushing now.

He managed a small chuckle. _I know how that spell works. Did you think I wouldn't have prepared something to protect me from the memory loss?_

_Then why pretend you didn't remember?_

_Because that's what you wanted._

_Okay. What happened happened and we can't change that. We were both lost and scared and confused and we just needed comfort._

_Phoebe won't see it that way._

_Phoebe doesn't have to know. And given that apparently she hasn't exactly kept herself celibate for you, she doesn't have grounds to criticize._

_You're her_ sister.

_And we'll deal with that later if we have to. For now, let Leo heal you. Stop resisting it. Come back._

_Prue...I can't._

_Don't turn coward on me now, Cole. You just turned the world upside down for Phoebe. Your love for her gave you the strength to leave the underworld and be good. It gave you the strength to stand up to me, and that's saying a lot. I don't know what Phoebe's going to think after all this, but don't take the coward's way out. I know how much you love her and how much you think you need her, but you don't need her to be good. You proved it with all this. And whatever she does, I'll make damn sure the rest of this family doesn't turn their backs on you again. I promise you._

He was silent for a long moment. _Prue...._

_What?_

_Thank you._

She willed herself back to her own body and opened her eyes. "Whatever you did...it worked," Leo said. "We healed him as much as we could."

"Then why isn't he waking up?" Prue said anxiously.

"Even with Paige I can't heal a demon completely," Leo said. "I think he needs to do the rest on his own."

"I'll tuck him in the Boudoir of the Paige, if that's all right," Paige said, looking up at Prue for approval. Prue nodded, and Paige touched Cole's arm and orbed out with him.

"Okay," Piper said. "Now will you tell me what the hell is going on?"

"I will, Piper, I promise," Prue said. "But I really need to talk to Phoebe first." She took her reluctant sister's hand. "C'mon, Pheebs. Upstairs."

Though she dragged her feet, Phoebe allowed Prue to lead her upstairs to Phoebe's bedroom. As Prue shut the door behind them, Phoebe sat heavily on her bed. "Okay," Prue said. "Explain yourself."

"What are you talking about?" Phoebe said.

Prue stood in front of her. "Tell me what happened to make you such a shallow, self-centered bitch."

"Is that what he told you?" Phoebe said, insulted.

"Not in so many words. He was more flattering than that," Prue said. "So explain it to me. What happened? The Phoebe I remember had her problems, but she was warm and compassionate and deeply in love with Cole. So much so that you were willing to go up against me and Piper and believe him that he'd been under the effects of spell when he killed that witch. You trusted him. What changed?"

"He...he became the Source of All Evil. Literally. He tried to kill us! We had to stop him!" Phoebe protested.

"I know. He told me," Prue said. "This goes deeper than that. Tell me what's happened to you."

Phoebe looked away. "I...I can't. I can't."

Prue seized her sister's shoulders and jerked her back to face her. "Tell me, Phoebe. Tell me what happened."

"I...I...." Phoebe stammered, and then the words finally came rushing out. "I chose to be evil. I was tested and I failed. I blamed everyone else -- Cole, the Seer, even the baby -- but it was me who failed. I should've...should've gone to Piper and Paige and tried to find a way to save Cole, but instead I let him fall into darkness and then fell along with him. I failed him, and I failed myself, and I failed my sisters. And because of it, Cole died...and so did my baby."

Prue softened a little. "That wasn't all your fault."

"Yes, it was!" Phoebe said angrily. "I should've realized. The Seer told us what she'd done! ‘Into the void,' she said. And then Cole started acting so strangely. He was trying to tell me what was happening but he couldn't and then it was too late. Or was it? We didn't even try to save him. After all we'd been through we just condemned him. Piper and Paige did. Even if he was the Source of All Evil, I still loved him. I couldn't lose him. Not after losing you...."

"Honey," Prue said, sitting down beside her sister and touching her hand to Phoebe's shoulder.

Tears spilled from her eyes. "He tried to give up the Source's powers. He fought harder than I ever did. But the Seer told me he would die if I didn't join with him. That our baby would die. So I stopped him. Our only chance for happiness, and I stopped him." She buried her face in her hands. "So I went to him and became the Source's queen. It made the pain stop for awhile. It was easier. I felt so alive and powerful. But I tried to have my cake and eat it, too, and it was tearing me apart. I loved my sisters but I hated them for condemning Cole. They didn't give up on me. Why did they give up on him? Then after everything, I lost my baby. Our baby. I wasn't strong enough to save him. Or maybe I was being punished. I told Piper and Paige it was just a black soulless thing, but _I_ was the black soulless thing."

Prue pulled Phoebe into her arms, letting her cry on her shoulder. "You never told Piper or Paige this?"

"Piper and Paige believed it was his fault I became Queen of the Underworld. I couldn't tell them it was my choice. They would never forgive me," Phoebe wept.

"But when Cole came back...why did you push him away?" Prue asked.

"I think I was afraid he would tell Piper and Paige the truth," Phoebe said. "And...and I was afraid of losing him again. That if I let him get close, he would break my heart again. So I blamed him for everything, even things that couldn't possibly be his fault. He came to us for help, and I slammed the door in his face. It's no wonder he went mad, the way I treated him."

"He still loves you, you know," Prue said.

Phoebe took a shuddering breath. "How can he, after what I did to him? I...I don't deserve him."

To her surprise, Prue laughed. At her sister's hurt look, Prue said, "Who would believe that one day I would be the one fighting for you and Cole? Okay, this has been a really rough day. You get some rest right now. We'll talk about this all later." Phoebe nodded, lying down on her bed. Prue drew a blanket over her, kissed her forehead, turned off the light, and left the room.

Piper was hovering outside the door. Prue raised an eyebrow. "Eavesdropping?"

"Busted," Piper said, making a face. "Prue...please...we have to talk." Prue followed her sister into her room, sitting wearily in a chair by the window while Piper flopped on her bed. "Okay," Piper said. "We died tonight. Cole, who apparently wasn't as dead as we thought he was, went back in time to save us." Prue nodded. "So he says he's good now." Another nod. "And you believe him?"

"Piper, he never stopped being good," Prue said. "Yeah, he was the Source of All Evil, but that wasn't his choice. He was possessed, like how the Woogie made Phoebe evil, or when Dantalian made us evil. Didn't that ever cross your mind? He saved you from the Source. Why would he become the Source willingly and then try to kill you?"

"What about when he came back?" Piper protested. "He had a Darklighter shoot Leo and Paige and me! And that's not even the worst of it."

"I know, I know," Prue sighed, "and I'm not excusing anything he did. But I do think none of that would've happened if you had showed him a little compassion. You turned your back on him when he needed you."

Piper scowled. "Are you saying it was our fault?"

"I'm not blaming anyone, Piper," Prue said, leaning toward the bed. "I'm just trying to understand how this all happened. Why you all just abandoned Cole. Did you...did you hear what Phoebe told me?"

"She can't be right, can she?" Piper said, her voice cracking with emotion. "She wouldn't choose to be evil. She wouldn't."

"I don't think it was entirely her choice. The Seer manipulated her, and so was the part of Cole that was the Source," Prue said, shaking her head. "But what matters is she thought she did, and she let that fester in her for years. She's changed so much, hasn't she?"

Piper sighed. "Losing you, losing Cole -- it changed her. I think...I think I was afraid to confront her about it for fear of tearing this family even more apart. I should've said something...I should've done something."

Prue took her sister's hand. "We can't undo the past. The future is what is going to matter. Now c'mon, let's go downstairs. I want a proper introduction to my nephew and my new sister."


	7. Chapter 7

Cole came awake sometime later. Opening his eyes, he blinked and tried to figure out where he was. Paige's room? He heard a soft whisper of breath in one shadowed corner behind him and knew without looking it was Phoebe. He could feel her presence, smell her perfume. He didn't roll over to face her, but kept still as he called softly, "Phoebe?" Panicked footsteps were his answer.

A few minutes later, Prue entered the room and sat on the bed. "Hey," she said. "How are you?"

"I'll live," he said bleakly. "Is everyone all right?"

"Thanks to you," she said. "We made it through the night. And scratch two Avatars due to the Power of Four. I think they'll be leaving you alone now."

He struggled to sit up; Prue offered her hand to help. "I should get out of here," he said.

"And go where exactly?" she asked.

With a shrug, he said, "I don't know. Go back to the penthouse maybe, try to figure things out. I...wasn't expecting to make it this far."

"So I gathered," Prue said. "Sorry to disappoint." She paused for a moment, then asked, "What happens to me now? Do I have to go back and die...like I should have? You said I didn't but...."

Cole shook his head. "No. What you do from here is your own choice. I'm sure your sisters can help forge some identity for you, or concoct some story about faking your death. I don't know how the Elders feel about it but I'm sure neither of us care much about their opinion."

Prue took his hand in hers. "We're both out of place in this world. But whatever happens, you're not alone. I promise you."

"Thanks," he said with a small smile. The experience had forged a bond between him and Prue, and despite the strangeness of it, it was nice. He started to try to get out of the bed. "I should really get out of here, though. Your sisters need time to deal...."

"Phoebe wants to talk to you," Prue interrupted.

He froze. "She...she does?"

"Sit back down," Prue said. "I'll go get her."

Prue left the room, and a few moments later he heard her footsteps outside the door. "Prue...I can't!" came Phoebe's panicked voice.

"Yes, you can," Prue said firmly. "Now get in there and talk to him. It's the only way either of you are ever going to heal."

Phoebe stumbled through the doorway, no doubt pushed by Prue. The door closed behind her. She pressed her back against it, looking at Cole fearfully. He winced. Fear was not much better than hatred.

Silence ruled the room for several long minutes as they just looked at each other. Finally he asked, "Is there something you wanted to say, Phoebe?"

She swallowed. "I...I...thank you. For saving us. For bringing back Prue."

"You're welcome," he said neutrally. No sense telling her why he did it. He knew she knew the reasons why. "If that's it...I'm going to go." Still a little dizzy, he managed to stand and turned away from Phoebe, gathering his strength to shimmer to the penthouse.

"Wait, don't go!" she called.

"What do you want?" he said tiredly, turning back around.

She stumbled over the words. "I-I just wanted to say I was sorry."

"Sorry?" he repeated. "For what?"

"Everything," she said. "I treated you badly. When-when I became Queen of the Underworld, I couldn't accept what I'd done. I blamed the Seer and the baby -- and most of all, I blamed you. I couldn't deal with what I did, so I put it all on you. I'm sorry."

"And how did you come to that conclusion?" he asked guardedly.

"Prue kinda woke me up and gave me the slap I've needed," she told him. "I've been unfair to you. I never asked how -- why -- you became the Source. It was easier to just blame you and push you away. And I did my best to make sure Piper and Paige didn't try to find out the truth."

"It wasn't all your fault, Phoebe," he said. "I put you through hell. Literally."

"I-I wish we could go back and change things," she said softly. "I really do."

Silence again, which he finally broke. "So what now?" he asked.

"Can you...can you forgive me?" she said in a small voice, looking down at the floor.

"I wouldn't have done all this for you if I didn't," he replied.

She nodded and swallowed. "I need to hear you say it. Please, Cole."

"I forgive you, Phoebe," he said. Saying the words was as cathartic for him as it was for her. Maybe now he could move on and live in peace.

"Thank you," she whispered, fighting back tears.

He turned away from her again, then heard a strangled sound of despair. "Please don't go, Cole!" Slowly, he looked back to her. She was crying freely now. "I love you," she wept. "I tried to tell myself I didn't, but I do. When I lost you, something died in me. And when you came back -- I was too afraid to lose you again, and too ashamed to admit what I'd done."

"I'm...here, Phoebe...." he said.

She took a step towards him. "Can I -- can we -- god, is it even possible for us to start over?"

"If we want it enough," he said softly.

Her lips trembled. "Do-do you?"

He looked at her silently. He did love her, but to open the door again to all that pain? He hesitated, unsure how to answer. For months after his return from the wastelands his every thought had been of her. And for months after he faked his death he had to fight to purge those thoughts. She seemed sincere now, but back then she had switched so fast between love and hate. Would she do the same now?

Her face crumpled at his hesitation, and she looked away. "It's too late, isn't it?"

He took a step forward and swept her into his arms and kissed her. She kissed him back, still crying but laughing as well, a sound he hadn't heard in so long. "I love you, Cole," she said. "I love you. I love you." She repeated the words as she clung to him as if afraid he would disappear again. 

"I love you, Phoebe," he said, holding her fiercely, tears of his own joining hers. "I never stopped. I never will."

* * *

Downstairs in the kitchen with her sisters and Leo, Paige looked upward at the ceiling. "They'd better not be doing what I think they're doing in my bed." She raised her voice pointedly with the last three words as if she expected those upstairs to hear.

Prue grinned. "Give them a break. It's not every day you get a second chance at love. Or...what, third? Fourth?" She yawned and sipped her coffee. While Cole and Phoebe might have gotten enforced rest last night, she and her sisters had remained awake, talking until dawn. There had been so much catching up to do, as well as meeting her half-sister and her new nephew. And, of course, assuring them all that Cole was not evil and would not hurt them.

Piper looked at Prue. "What about you?" she said. "What happens now? Do you...have to go back?"

"I don't think so," Leo said thoughtfully. "This actually explains a lot...."

"What do you mean?" Paige asked.

"The real reason you were never allowed to see Prue was because we didn't know where she was," Leo admitted. "The Elders wouldn't tell me much, just that they didn't know where her spirit had gone after she died."

Piper stared at her husband. "You didn't know where she was and you never told us?"

"I wanted to," Leo protested, warily eyeing Piper's hands as if he expected her to blow him up. "The Elders wouldn't let me. They threatened to clip my wings and send me far away if I ever even hinted at it."

Infuriated, Piper looked heavenward. "Here these words, hear my cry, spirit from the other side. Come to me, I summon thee. Cross now the Great Divide! Grams, get your spectral ass down here! Now!"

Penny Halliwell appeared in a swirl of blue lights. "My darlings, what's wr--." Her words halted as she saw Prue. "Prue!"

"Hey Grams," Prue said with a little wave.

"But...but how?" Grams said, flustered, one hand at her throat.

Piper crossed her arms over her chest and faced her grandmother. "You tell us! You said she was with you and we couldn't see her because we weren't ready and we had to let go. All this time you were lying to us!"

Grams looked uncomfortable. "We didn't know what to tell you. Prue died, but her spirit didn't come to heaven. We didn't know what had happened to her. She was just....gone. And we didn't want to worry you with thoughts that she was being tormented somewhere. You wouldn't have been able to focus on your duties at Charmed Ones...."

Piper looked over to her sister. "Then...then maybe she never really died?" she said. "You didn't know where she was because she was...here?"

"Cole saved me," Prue said. "It happened all along, didn't it? This is the way things were supposed to happen."

Paige brought her hands up to her temples, rubbing them. "Time paradoxes give me a headache," she complained. "You're saying you never died because Cole saved you and brought you to the future to save us last night?"

Prue slowly nodded. "I think so."

"It's like ‘The Terminator,' only Cole didn't sleep with you so you could give birth to the savior of humanity," Paige said jokingly. Prue choked on her coffee; Piper patted her on the back, looking at her, concerned.

Phoebe walked into the kitchen a few seconds later, holding Cole's hand as he followed her. "That was fast," Piper said, sarcasm masking the anxiety in her voice as she took in Phoebe's disheveled hair and clearly kiss-swollen lips.

Blushing, Phoebe said, "We, uh, figured we should join the family meeting."

"Family?" Prue repeated, looking pointedly at her sister. Phoebe blushed again and squeezed Cole's hand. He lingered in the doorway, clearly uneasy to be there.

Grams glared at Cole suspiciously. "Are you calling him family now?"

Phoebe drew herself up straight and faced Penny. "Yes. Is that a problem?" She looked around as daring anyone to make a protest.

"Are you sure, Phoebe?" Piper said softly.

Her sister nodded. "I know a lot of things have happened that we both wish we could undo, but...we're going to focus on the future now. And starting over. It's what I want. It's what we both want."

Piper looked at Prue for reassurance; Prue nodded. "Okay, sweetie," Piper said. "You...both of you...have our support." Paige nodded in agreement. Prue could see the hesitation in their uncertain approval, but they had spent hours talking about it the previous night. They had been through a lot with Cole, but they couldn't deny that they could have handled things better than they had...and that he had saved them. And brought Prue back to them. And had been willing to die to do it.

Grams' eyes narrowed as she continued to look at Cole. "I'll be keeping an eye on you," she said. "Don't you dare hurt my granddaughter."

"That's the last thing I want to do," Cole said solemnly.

"Easy, Grams," Phoebe said with a light laugh. "It's not like he's a _necromancer_ or anything."

Now Grams had the decency to blush, and Piper giggled. "If I take after Mom, she takes after you," she said.

"Except for the multiple husbands part," Phoebe said, looking up at Cole. "I just want one."

Prue smiled as Phoebe leaned back against Cole and he wrapped his arm around her waist. The two of them still had a lot to work through, but she was sure they could do it. Cole had come to her seeking redemption, but Phoebe had found it as well.


End file.
